January 2014 Blog Posts (56)

Back in December I flew down to Orlando, partially for an impromptu Drew Estate event at Corona Cigar Company, but also to visit Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World. While I was at Corona Cigar Company I saw a prominent display for the Joya de Nicaragua Cuatro Cinco. I had read a lot about the release of this stick and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to pick up two for review.

Last year I found myself struggling to list the best cigars over the past year. With many opportunities to smoke some great products, cigars appearing earlier in the year ended up fading in my memory by the time December rolled around. This year I wanted to do something different and have a running ranked list based purely on my subjective enjoyment of each cigar.

1.…

The other night I had just enough time to smoke this Felix Assouline Havana Sunrise Reserve, given to me by Michel Malek. It’s a nice looking, little box press with a smooth body, and a bumpy cap with a few creases in the top triple cap. But, otherwise good construction. The wrapper smelled like fresh cut, snuff tobacco, with a hint of earth/hay. I cut the cap with a guillotine and found the draw to be a bit tighter than expected. The cold draw was that of semi-sweet tobacco and some…

Thanks for all of the positive feedback on my last post. It just frustrated the heck out of me when states want to do stupid things like declaring that you can't smoke in a cigar store (or private anything...don't get me started!) when there are so many other more productive things they could be worrying about! Anyway, despite the frigid weather, I managed to smoke some cigars this week.

I made the mistake of taking this Churchill sized Dignity White Gold Reserve cigar for my…

Royal Gold Cigars is one of the new kids on the block, but when you look at their back story, they really aren't that new. The fact is that Royal Gold Cigars is the premium brand launched by Swisher International. Yes, THAT Swisher. So, what is the best way to launch a new premium line of cigars? You come out strong and work with one of the hottest names (if not THE hottest) in the cigar industry. This is how the…

Partagas Festival Welcome Dinner

There’s something pretty special about waking up, watching the sun come up and having an espresso and a cigar in Cuba. After enough caffeine to get me started for the day we headed downstairs for our buffet breakfast. Some omelets, more espresso, various pastries and our morning ritual was complete.

Everyone was feeling better after a full nights rest and a hot shower, now it was just a matter of figuring out our plans for the day. With…

Hello from Strongmancigars.ca, reviews come out every Monday and Thursday and will have video reviews starting in the spring. For a little information about myself, I am a Canadian cigar reviewer based in Ontario and started reviewing during the summer of 2013 but have smoked since 2010. Below is one of my reviews about the Alec Bradley Tempus. Enjoy and visit strongmancigars.ca…

Sunuvabeatch…I got a case of the beetles! A freeze was in order, so I made sure and grabbed a few cigars to review while the rest of my stash recovers from a bit of a temperature change. The Sublimes was a cigar that always caught my attention. For some reason, their advertising always caught my eye, so when I saw their booth at IPCPR within close proximity of ours, I made a point to stop by and say hello. I could not get much information about the blend from the rep, but…

It’s been so cold here this week that I haven’t been able to bring myself to go out for a cigar. It was certainly too cold to go for my usual walk (although I managed to have one in the snow yesterday), and once I got home from work, going out to a cigar shop for a smoke didn’t feel like a good idea either. This cold and snow and stuff is getting to me! C’mon Spring! Maybe because Winter got off to an early start we can expect it to get warmer sooner? We’ll have to wait until…

This Montecristo Especial No. 2 had been sitting in my humidor for a whopping 494 days before I picked it out to review. Sadly I’m unsure of the origins of it, it probably came from a box pass that I did back in 2012. The person who set me up with the cigar reached out to jog my memory. The generous LostAbbott set me up the Montecristo Especial No. 2 as a part of a…

After searching for this cigar for months, a twitter BOTL took pity on me & sent the Tantrum as a gift - arriving just in time for New Year's Eve !

While I was very surprised by the size of the Tantrum ( a slightly thicker petit corona; 4.4 with 44 ring gauge ) -- this little baby was a power pack. Made with aged Nicaraguan tobacco & a Cuban Seed Corojo wrapper, the Tantrum is nicely constructed, burns beautifully, holds an amazing ash & never needs… Continue

MIAMI, FL – Twenty-five years ago Nestor and Mariana Miranda began distributing cigars out of the trunk of their car, visiting accounts that Nestor had built relationships with through his many years in the liquor business. Never in their wildest dreams would they have…

Being active on Twitter & Instagram, I not only get a chance to share my cigar likes, loves & challenges, I also love to hear what everyone else is smoking. A fellow reviewer, whom I affectionately call "Houston," described the Gurkha Ghost as if it was pure gold.

Even though we have similar tastes, I actually didn't believe him. I had a preconceived notion that Gurkha was a harsh cigar based on a stick I tried, but couldn't remember it's name, a few years ago. So, I went… Continue

This time of year gets a bit frustrating for me because of the weird weather. I get times when the weather isn’t very good and I really don’t want to waste a really good cigar, or smoke something new that I want to pay attention to. I usually end up smoking something I’m familiar with, and that’s not a whole lot of fun for you guys! So far, this has been one of those times.

I should really call this "My Past 2 Weeks in Review" as I haven't posted since 1/7. With the winter weather in full bloom here in NJ (and a foot of snow expected today), smoking has taken a backseat. I'll post this as it makes sense to highlight cigars I think need some highlighting. It will be sporadic, but it is what it is. The real reviewers on Cigar Federation will keep you in the loop to give you your review fix. With that out of the way, let's go through what I've enjoyed over…

I am going to break several of my rules right now, by offering a short review of a cigar which has sat in my Refrig'ador for only a bit over a week or two. And.... That I have only smoked one of them, so far. That being said, this cigar, by the House of Burgess Cigars Ltd. is an excellent smoke, with little to no age on it. I smoked the Maduro, which is on the Mild to Medium side. It has a Brazilian…